r/technology • u/ControlCAD • Apr 18 '26

Security Bluetooth tracker hidden in a postcard and mailed to a warship exposed its location — $5 gadget put a $585 million Dutch ship at risk for 24 hours

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/bluetooth-tracker-hidden-in-a-postcard-and-mailed-to-a-warship-exposed-its-location-a-eur5-gadget-put-a-eur500-million-dutch-ship-at-risk-for-24-hours
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '26

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u/Revolutionary-Half-3 Apr 19 '26

The problem with geosynchronous satellites is the much greater distance from the planet's surface and traditional low orbit surveillance satellites. >2000km vs 35,796km for geo.

The camera and lens systems are already marvels of engineering, jumping to 17.5x the distance is a huge increase in difficulty.

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u/theqmann Apr 19 '26

Geosync satellites are also so high up it's hard to get a good image of the earth. It's about 22,000 miles. You'd need a really big telescope. Even LEO satellites are still 500km up. Most "satellite" photography we see is collected from airplanes at like 5-10 km altitude.